The Mountain: The Hike Toward Representation

I remember hiking up Mount Greylock when I was younger. I was very keen to climb Massachusetts’ tallest mountain. However, I would get tired very easily, and my family and I must have stopped three times in as many miles to rest and drink water. Fortunately, one of these times was in a clearing in the trees, where, from the trail, I could see the rolling hills of Western Massachusetts unfold before me. I sat there, and I finished the last drops of water in my bottle, and I scanned for the parking lot from which we had started hiking. That climb was exhausting, but it pales in comparison to the metaphorical mountain Asian Americans have been forced to scale for centuries. Our history in this country has been one long, steep ascent against a landscape of exclusion.

Asian Americans have always been an excluded minority. Despite our wide range of differences, being lumped together has helped us bond. Chinese immigrants in the 19th century, for example, were used for cheap labor building the Transcontinental Railroad, and became the subject of fears of job-stealing, violence, and lynching. After the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, they were replaced as cheap labor by Japanese, Indian, and Korean immigrants. They faced the same legal and social issues, being fully denied citizenship and subject to the same fears and violence by their white neighbors. Filipinos, having been colonized by the United States, were not initially subject to closed-off immigration laws, but they eventually became so under the 1935 Tydings-McDuffie Act. 

These restrictions only began to loosen after World War II, due to Cold War politics in the Asia-Pacific region. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 finally repealed the fixed quotas on immigration from certain regions, resulting in a massive influx of immigrants from Asia and elsewhere. Southeast Asian immigrants also began entering the United States en masse amid the chaos of the 1970s, including the end of the Vietnam War, the Laotian Civil War, and the Cambodian genocide. 

All of these varied groups have come together in the United States and formed a powerful community of their own. I would go so far as to say that underrepresentation and misrepresentation in places like the media isn’t nearly as much of a problem as it was even thirty or forty years ago. Media like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Turning Red, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse show that there is a place for a nuanced, realistic depiction of Asian-Americans on screen.

In government, too, Asian Americans are carving out a sizable place in American institutions, with Asian participation skyrocketing from 5% in 2008 to 49% in 2024, according to Census Bureau data. As of the writing of this article, there are 3 senators– Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and Andy Kim of New Jersey– as well as 18 U.S. representatives of Asian descent in Congress, with many more serving in state and local offices. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris, recently a major presidential candidate, is of Indian descent. 

Of course, none of this discounts the numerous issues that still remain within the Asian American community. Discrimination remains alive and well, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19, as do harmful racial stereotypes. Despite the stereotype of Asian Americans as overachievers and successful professionals, there also exists significant wealth inequality within the whole, and said stereotype can result in a psychological toll for Asians if they struggle to live up to the implied expectations, like a mountain you cannot quite climb. 

Which returns us to Mount Greylock. As a minority group within the United States, Asian Americans are standing halfway up a mountain. We have not yet reached the top, and the trail ahead is steep and rocky. But for a moment, we can stop, drink some water, and admire the view from where we are. And then we get up, we dust ourselves off, and we keep hiking.

About the Author

Oliver Chi is a leader of the BranchOut! Newton Chapter. As a junior at Newton North High School in Newton, MA, he has a strong interest in history and community involvement. Through AmeriCorps, he assisted with the 2024 election by guiding voters through procedures and supporting the overall process. Oliver is a member of Newton North’s varsity History Team. He wrote an independent research paper on the impact of the War of 1812 on American nationalism, which was later published in the American Journal of Student Research.

Oliver Chi and Victor Lee, a Newton School Committee member, share a moment at a formal gathering at the Newton City Hall.